The European Commission decided on Thursday 8 July to impose a total fine of EUR 875.189 million on Daimler, BMW and the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche). These companies breached EU antitrust rules by colluding on technical development in the field of nitrogen oxide cleaning.
Executive Vice-President of the Commission Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, told the press: “These car manufacturers illegally colluded to restrict competition in the area of emission cleaning technology for diesel cars. This is the first time that the Commission finds that cooperation on technical elements, as opposed to price fixing or market sharing, amounts to cartel behaviour.”
Daimler escapes the fine. According to Vestager, all parties have acknowledged their involvement in the cartel and have agreed to settle the case. Daimler revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission and therefore received full immunity, thus avoiding a fine of around EUR 727 million. The fine imposed on Volkswagen amounts to EUR 502.3 million (EUR 372.8 million for BMW).
Behaviour involved. The car manufactures held regular technical meetings to discuss the development of the selective catalytic reduction (SCR)-technology which eliminates harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx)-emissions from diesel passenger cars through the injection of urea (also called “AdBlue”) into the exhaust gas stream. During these meetings, and for over five years, the car manufacturers colluded to avoid competition on cleaning better than what is required by law despite the relevant technology being available.
Daimler, BMW and the Volkswagen Group reached an agreement on AdBlue tank sizes and ranges and a common understanding on the average estimated AdBlue consumption. They also exchanged commercially sensitive information on these elements. They thereby removed the uncertainty about their future market conduct concerning NOx-emissions cleaning beyond and above the legal requirements (so called “over-fulfilment”) and AdBlue refill ranges.
This means that they have restricted competition on product features that are important to consumers.
Such conduct constitutes an infringement by object in the form of a limitation of technical development, a type of infringement explicitly referred to in Article 101(1)(b) of the Treaty and Article 53(1)(b) of the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement.
The conduct took place between 25 June 2009 and 1 October 2014.
In these cartel proceedings, the Commission did not determine whether the car manufacturers complied with EU car emission standards or cleaned to a higher standard than that required.
“This case is separate to the diesel scandal, which has been - and still is being - prosecuted at national level under various administrative and criminal laws”, Ms Vestager explained.
Link to the case: https://bit.ly/3dVBkpd (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)